"I understand," Kalem answered, though he wasn't sure he did. He wanted to know more about the Federation contact, about the sudden change in climate that would make a full-scale victory a tangible possibility; about the true nature of the offers that Dukat was trying to make. But from Keeve's tone, it was clear that this was not the time to ask questions-this was the time to act.

"What is this place?" Tahna Los asked Biran as they crept closer to the low-lying building, several kellipates outside of Dahkur. It was old and poorly kept, with a deserted feel. "An armory?"

Kohn Biran shook his head. "I think we've managed to get all the armories around here. Between us, the Shakaar, and the Gertis cells, we've practically crippled the spoonheads in this region."

"So, what is it?"

Biran looked stern. "Don't tell anyone in the Shakaar cell. It's an orphanage."

"We're bombing an orphanage?" Tahna didn't mean for his voice to sound so incredulous, and he cleared his throat, glancing uncomfortably at Jouvirna. "I mean-"

"Baby vipers are still poisonous," Biran said. "Remember what I said about the Shakaar. Especially the women."

"Nerys probably wouldn't have a problem with it," Tahna said, though he wasn't certain. "But Lupaza..."

"Don't worry about them. We need to do this-to send a message."

It had been six weeks since the announcements. They had heard the news repeated from the Krim cell in Rakantha, the Carean cell from Ba'atal, the Gertis cell, and many others that Tahna couldn't even name. Jaro Essa was saying that this was the time to push harder than they had ever pushed, if they wanted to be free of the Cardassians. And they were pushing. Tahna knew that there was still heavy Cardassian presence in other parts of the world, but at least they had made headway here in Dahkur. The Kohn-Ma cell had only encountered a single Cardassian soldier tonight, angry and clearly frightened. Most of what they had encountered had been wreckage-bodies, shrapnel, burning ships and equipment. All lent an apocalyptic desolation to the once-beautiful landscape.

"So, we're going to kill them," Tahna said, laboring to avoid sounding grim as he studied the pathetic building.

Jouvirna shrugged. "We could blow them up, or we could take them hostage-use them as bargaining chips to get farther into the city, should we meet with a sizeable contingent of soldiers. But probably, the spoonheads wouldn't respond to hostages-they don't care about the orphans. We're doing them a favor by killing them, if you ask me."

Tahna wasn't so sure-and anyway, he thought it might be useful to have some leverage in case of Cardassian encounter. He hadn't forgotten the beatings he had suffered at the hands of his Cardassian captors, the horrible devices they had used in their efforts to coerce him to reveal the location of the rest of his cell. But the memory wasn't enough to dissuade him from continuing to fight. If anything, it fueled him, especially now that he believed the end was so near. Yet, there seemed to be little glory in carrying through with this particular target.

Tahna kept his views to himself as they moved in. The building was only a hecapate away, but before they could come close enough to detonate their explosives, a white sheet of blinding fire rose up from beyond the gates of the facility. Tahna threw his body backward to avoid the fallout of shrapnel, and the blast of heat washed over them. But after a moment, he saw that they had been far enough away to avoid contact with any flying debris. He sheepishly rose.

"Someone beat us to it," Jouvirna said, his voice tinged with awe.

"Someone else blew up the orphanage," Tahna said, stating the obvious, finding some measure of relief in the revelation. This wasn't the first time his cell had conspired to kill Cardassian children, or even the children of Bajoran collaborators. He found some reassurance in the discovery that other cells were capable of such an act.

Shouting had followed the explosion-shouts of Bajoran men, at least two of whom seemed to be headed in Tahna's direction. A beat later, a middle-aged man stepped out of the smoke, approaching Tahna and the others.

"Ho there," Tahna called. The man wore the garb of a farmer, dun-colored coveralls that were permanently grassy-green at the knees from kneeling for the harvest. As he came closer, Tahna saw that he was missing three teeth on the left side of his mouth, probably a result of poor nutrition. "What cell are you?"

"Cell?" The man called out. "None! We live in Petrita village, that way." He gestured to the east as a second man joined him. "We have been planning to destroy this site for over a week. It's the only place around here the spoonheads haven't abandoned."

"Are you sure?" Biran called out.

"Positive," answered the second man. He wore a stained leather vest over his tunic. "We've been scoping out all the local Cardassian sites. The only place they had anyone left was here at the orphanage. But don't worry, the children were all gone."

"Gone?" Biran said. "But the Cardassians don't claim the children of others...?"

"The young ones were taken in by Bajoran families," he said. "They're too little to know any different. If they're lucky, they can just forget they were ever Cardassian."

"The young ones?" Tahna asked. "So...who was left?"

"There were three teenage boys in there who fancied themselves heroes," the farmer said. "They barricaded themselves inside and started taking potshots at us when we came near, though I couldn't tell you where they got their weapons-probably stolen from dead bodies around here somewhere. We figured we'd have to bomb them out-and so we did." He gestured back to the smoking rubble that had been the squat building as the other man raised his fist in victory.

Tahna felt strange as he considered the Cardassian teenagers. Abandoned here on an unfamiliar world, fighting for the very people who had left them behind. He briefly wished he hadn't asked. It was easier just to look on the remains of a building and feel triumphant.

"Are you all right, mister?" One of the farmers directed his question toward Tahna, who realized that he must be wearing his uncertainty. He forced a laugh, just before the bulky comm unit he carried alerted him with a squawk.

"This is six-one-six calling kejal-three-two..." It was Kira, back at the caves. It was Kira, back at the caves.

"This is kejal kejal three-two, six-one-six, go ahead." three-two, six-one-six, go ahead."

"Kejal three-two, reports of attack ships sighted in the Musilla region, headed toward Dahkur Province, estimated arrival one half-hour. Best to take cover, over." three-two, reports of attack ships sighted in the Musilla region, headed toward Dahkur Province, estimated arrival one half-hour. Best to take cover, over."

Tahna's heart sank. "Copy that," he responded, looking to the others in his cell. Judging by their grave expressions, they had all heard it. The two farmers had heard it, as well, and did not hesitate to scurry back in the direction from which they had come.

"Helpful chaps," Biran remarked sourly.

"More spoonheads," Tahna lamented. "We had them all but wiped out in this province..."

"Forget it, Tahna, we've got to go," Jouvirna said, gesturing to the others as he broke into a jog. "We've got just enough time to make it back to the tunnels."

Tahna wasn't so sure that they did have time, but he sprinted alongside the others, pushing himself into the state of dogged numbness that was usually required for long-distance running. The four men crashed through brush, ambled up hills and back down them again, weaving through trees and over creeks. Tahna had once known all these routes by heart, but they had grown dimmer since the grid had gone up, every outside errand or mission turning into a carefully formulated and executed plan. It had been exhilarating to think that the grid was down for good-though a new onslaught of Cardassians in the area might mean that these days of freedom were coming to an end.

They made it back to their hideout in record time. Crawling through the tunnels gave Tahna the opportunity to catch his breath, though his mouth tasted like metal from the ragged heaving of the smoky air. He coughed as he shimmied after the Kohn brothers, and the sound echoed eerily throughout the connected caverns and passageways.

Nerys was waiting for him in the larger passageway that connected the Shakaar and Kohn-Ma burrows. She followed them into their cavern, not wasting any time with what she had to say, a bright urgency in her voice. "Jaro Essa just issued a statement over the comm."

Kohn Weir replied. "Jaro himself, or-?"

"It was Jaro," Kira confirmed. "He says that someone from the Valo system is bringing a massive shipment of weapons into Dahkur tomorrow-modern phasers, raw materials for explosives, and-"

"Who is bringing it?" Jouvirna inquired.

"What difference does it make?" Kira exclaimed. "They've already smuggled a shipment to Kendra. Prophets willing, the pilot will be here tomorrow with even more. Jaro said they'll be bringing shoulder-mounted missile launchers that can be fired from kellipates kellipates away, and long-range particle cannons for the raiders! We can take out heavy weapons emplacements, flyers, mechanized infantry units-all of it!" away, and long-range particle cannons for the raiders! We can take out heavy weapons emplacements, flyers, mechanized infantry units-all of it!"

The Kohn-Ma members looked at one another with skepticism and bewilderment.

"If what you say is true," Biran finally spoke up, "then this is really going to be the end of it."

"I know," Kira said evenly, and suddenly, Tahna knew it, too. It was really going to be over.

LIBERATED BAJOR, YEAR ONE.

2369 (Terran Calendar)

25.

"Finally, I feel like the Prophets are listening," Shakaar said, taking a sip from his mug of copal copal cider. "I've been writing the same thing on my renewal scrolls since I learned how to write, and this time-" cider. "I've been writing the same thing on my renewal scrolls since I learned how to write, and this time-"

"You aren't supposed to tell anyone what you write on your scroll," Kira reminded him, as she leaned up against the bare trunk of a dead nyawood tree. The sky above them was striped with a deep-cast orange, the moons beginning to rise over the farthest mountain ranges. The air was thick with smoke from burning Cardassian wreckage-and from the traditional fires of the Gratitude Festival, currently being celebrated all over the planet. It could not have come at a more opportune time in the calendar.

Shakaar laughed and took another pull at his cider. "Could there be any question what I wrote on my scroll? What we all wrote?"

"It's not my place to speculate what anyone else wrote," Kira said primly, and took the mug from Shakaar's hands to take a draught of her own.

Shakaar smiled at her, amusement shining in his eyes.

Both turned their heads to the sky as five more Cardassian troop carriers went up, bringing the day's total up to somewhere in the low hundreds. All day long, the Shakaar cell had been watching the ships leave atmosphere. All were backlit by an eerie halo in the lower portion of the sky, a clinging, stinking haze of acrid chemical smoke-not from the bonfires and braziers that had begun to smolder just after the sun dipped in the horizon, but from the remains of Cardassian factories, mining camps, and military bases. Some of the larger facilities had been burning for weeks. The Cardassians had stopped trying to put them out more than a month past, retaliating instead with fires of their own-scorching and poisoning the fields of thousands of farmers, setting the forests ablaze, ensuring that although they were finally leaving, their presence would not soon be forgotten.

The resistance had pushed as hard as they could, just as Jaro Essa had advised, following the massacre in the Kendra Valley. At first, it had not seemed that would be enough-the soldiers just kept coming, and Bajoran casualties were heavy. The targets seemed too numerous and too distant to effectively remove by people on foot. But the tide had turned two weeks ago-no small thanks to the massive distribution of contraband weapons that had found its way to Bajor from the Valo system.

Kira squinted up into the darkening sky as the winking ship lights became too distant to see, and her face split into a wide smile. Her head felt light. Though she continually warned herself not to get her hopes up, she truly believed the occupation was coming to a close.

Shakaar shook his head, as if to illustrate his own wary disbelief, and then he smiled back at her.

"This seems as good a way to celebrate the Gratitude Festival as any," Kira said.

"It's a new year," Shakaar murmured, taking the nearly empty mug away from her.

"A new era," Kira said.

"Peldor joi, Nerys," Shakaar said. Nerys," Shakaar said.

"Peldor joi." She repeated the traditional salutation of the Gratitude Festival. It seemed funny to her now, the old Bajoran words having become nearly meaningless in these past years. Her family had still celebrated the festival when she was a child, lighting a small metal brazier and burning the renewal scrolls along with an uncharacteristically large dinner. Many friends and neighbors would come to the Kira residence to take part in the feast, and there would even be some kind of small treat afterward, for the children. But in the years since she had joined the resistance, the festival had been almost forgotten-a nod to the Prophets, but the modest indulgences of Kira's childhood seemed so far in the past as to have been imagined. She repeated the traditional salutation of the Gratitude Festival. It seemed funny to her now, the old Bajoran words having become nearly meaningless in these past years. Her family had still celebrated the festival when she was a child, lighting a small metal brazier and burning the renewal scrolls along with an uncharacteristically large dinner. Many friends and neighbors would come to the Kira residence to take part in the feast, and there would even be some kind of small treat afterward, for the children. But in the years since she had joined the resistance, the festival had been almost forgotten-a nod to the Prophets, but the modest indulgences of Kira's childhood seemed so far in the past as to have been imagined.

"I think they might really be leaving for good," Shakaar observed, putting voice to the thing that all Bajorans had come to believe, but had mostly been afraid to say out loud.

"Time will tell," Kira said carefully. "We need more cider."

"And I need to write my scroll," Shakaar said. "Shall we go back to camp?"

"I'll be along," Kira said, continuing to stare out at the sky, creeping over with dark. She turned for a moment to watch Shakaar amble back to the place where the cell had lit a bonfire of their own, swigging cider and gorging themselves on some makeshift approximation of hasperat hasperat. She admired him as he moved-she had always liked something about the way he moved-though of course there was nothing romantic about it; he was just a good-looking man, that was all. She turned away from him as the very notion of her old cell leader in amorous terms seized her, and she was overcome by a short burst of self-conscious laughter. Another carrier went up.

"Peldor joi," she told it, gazing after the transport until she couldn't see it anymore, and then turned to go back to camp; the she told it, gazing after the transport until she couldn't see it anymore, and then turned to go back to camp; the hasperat hasperat was calling. was calling.

"The civilian leaders' decision was nearly unanimous," Kell said. His face, almost filling the holoframe, was devoid of any expression. Kell said. His face, almost filling the holoframe, was devoid of any expression.

Dukat cut him off with a barely suppressed snort.

"Have I amused you?"

Dukat shook his head, aware of the smile that refused to budge from his lips. There was nothing remotely amusing here, but if he stopped smiling, he was unsure of what would ultimately happen. His frustration rode so close to the surface of his bearings, he kept the reins tight as he carefully chose his words.

"I did all I could do."

"Of course you did."

"We took a few losses, naturally. Anything worth having can be expected to run into a few setbacks here and there." He extended his hand, palm up, and then, not quite knowing what else to do with it, he clenched it into a fist. "Central Command must have agreed with the civilian government to consent to this decision."

Kell opened his mouth as if to reply, but Dukat spoke over him; he did not care to hear the legate's excuses for the weakening of Central Command. The military was hemorrhaging power, and it was partly the fault of officials like Kell who were foolish enough to submit in the first place. This turn of events had been set in motion a long time ago. "It is...disappointing that some of my colleagues cannot envision the long-term results of their actions." His fist tightened. Someday, he would set things right-with the traitors in the civilian government, and with those in Central Command, as well. He knew exactly who was to blame for this, the loss of his legacy.

"The Cardassian people...have no faith in me," he went on. "They never did. Central Command had none, either. And yet, if they would only review the records of my term here, they would see that the very few times I was able to make use of my own policies, the Union enjoyed measurable success here. But when I followed the dictates of Central Command"-his voice was rising-"I failed. I failed, because I allowed others to coerce me into ignoring my own instincts."

Kell suddenly looked very tired. "There is little sense in speaking of it now," "There is little sense in speaking of it now," he said, his tone flat. he said, his tone flat. "This is not about you, Dukat. I am contacting you merely as a formality. I anticipate the Federation will send its Starfleet soon. I assume you already know what must be done." "This is not about you, Dukat. I am contacting you merely as a formality. I anticipate the Federation will send its Starfleet soon. I assume you already know what must be done."

"This is is about me!" Dukat shouted. "Bajor is about me, don't you understand that? If you weren't so busy pandering to the fools in the Detapa Council-Central Command is but a shadow of its former self, can't you see that, Kell? Because of weak men like you!" about me!" Dukat shouted. "Bajor is about me, don't you understand that? If you weren't so busy pandering to the fools in the Detapa Council-Central Command is but a shadow of its former self, can't you see that, Kell? Because of weak men like you!"

Kell scoffed and shook his head at the outburst. "I understand how difficult it must be for you to confront your own failure," "I understand how difficult it must be for you to confront your own failure," he said with a barely suppressed sneer. he said with a barely suppressed sneer. "But there is still much for you to do, and little time to do it." "But there is still much for you to do, and little time to do it."

"Yes...sir," Dukat said, carefully dialing back his hostility. He could not afford to make a fool of himself any more than he had already done, and Kell still had the power to ruin him completely-if the loss of Bajor hadn't already done it.

Dukat stood alone in his office for a few moments after the transmission ended. His arm had fallen to his side, but his hand was still closed into a hard fist. Slowly, he uncurled his fingers, examining his palm as if seeing it for the first time. He felt slightly dazed, but he knew he could not afford to succumb to his emotions; there was much to be done, as Kell had said, and he was the one expected to do it. There were no more Cardassians on the surface; at least, none who were authorized to be there. Now he must remove the rest of his men from Terok Nor.

He put in a call to Dalin Trakad, speaking as soon as the dull-faced officer stepped into his office. "Get all the Bajorans out of ore processing and get them to the surface immediately," he commanded.

"Sir...how am I to arrange for the transport of so many people?"

"I don't care," Dukat snapped. "Put them in the cargo hold of a freighter for all I care, just get them out of here. Drop them at the closest transport hub on the surface and call it done. Get them out of here before they start rioting."

"Some of them...already have, sir."

"All the more reason to be swift in carrying out my instructions, Trakad."

The dalin nodded. "Yes, sir. But...I don't know if you're aware that some of the soldiers...they have also started to destroy station property..." "Yes, sir. But...I don't know if you're aware that some of the soldiers...they have also started to destroy station property..."

"Have they," Dukat mused. "Well, I advise you to keep out of their way, then. But I want you to personally ensure that all systems are permanently offline before we go. Leave nothing for the scavengers that will come after us. Purge all databases. Every system-replicators, weapons, ore-processing equipment, turbolifts-do your best to see that they are no longer functional by the time we leave. If all else fails, old-fashioned sabotage will suffice. Keep life support up, of course. For the time being."

The dalin was surprised. "There is very little time, sir. It may not be possible to completely-" "There is very little time, sir. It may not be possible to completely-"

Dukat ignored him. "Start arranging for the transfer of first-tier military officials; all higher-echelon officers will be transported back to Cardassia Prime immediately. The rest are to follow until evacuation is complete, but I want all our people gone within three days. Understood?"

"What about...what about the tailor, sir?"

"He can fend for himself," Dukat snapped. Kell had made it clear enough that the disgraced operative was to be left alone; this might actually be the first time Dukat was happy to comply with the legate's order. "Carry out my intructions," he told Trakad.

"Yes, sir."

Dukat turned to go, but his thoughts quickly turned to the shape-shifter. "Contact Odo for me, Trakad."

Where Trakad had previously looked bewildered, now he looked fearful. "The...shape-shifter is...Nobody can find him. He seems to be...gone."

"Gone?"

"He...hasn't been seen since yesterday, and rumors have already sprouted that he fled...back to Bajor."